Heaven's Light
by Ultrawoman
Summary: One Shot. Right at the end of 5x12 ‘You’re Welcome’. Cordelia’s ascent to a heavenly world beyond our own, and her reunion there with someone special.


A/N : My first Angel fic, though it's just a one shot, it's kid of a big deal since it's been a very long time since I wrote anything that wasn't Spuffy! Hope it turned out okay. It's just an idea I had that wouldn't go away til I wrote it.

Rating : G

Setting : Right at the end of 5x12 'You're Welcome'

Summary : Cordelia's ascent to a heavenly world beyond our own, and her reunion there with someone special.

Heaven's Light

"Oh, and you're welcome" Cordelia called across the room to Angel.

Even as she said it the office began to blur out of focus. She kept her eyes on the vampire til the very last moment, when the sheer white of her new surroundings overtook her view of him.

"Bye, Angel" she whispered to herself as a single tear made it's way down her cheek.

She was too deep in thought to notice the presence behind her til it spoke.

"You never kissed me like that" said a familiar Irish voice she'd missed so much, and she turned to see him standing there, "but then I was never the real champion now was I?" he smirked.

"Doyle!" Cordelia exclaimed, throwing herself into his arms and squeezing him so tight, he was sure she'd have shattered a few ribs if he was still alive. Of course none of that mattered here and he could just enjoy having the breath knocked out of him by the woman he'd missed so much these past years.

"How are you, princess?" he asked huskily when she finally pulled away and she glanced around the white expanse of nothingness they stood in.

"Dead, I guess" she frowned slightly.

"Don't fret, darlin'" her old friend told her, "Least you still look gorgeous"

Cordy smiled fondly at him for that and just for the fact she was standing opposite him again, it seemed so unreal. She reached a hand out to his cheek, as if to check it was true that he was right there with her. Four years ago she'd said goodbye to him, sharing just one kiss before he revealed the demon side he'd kept hidden from her and leapt to his death, sacrificing himself so that so many others might live.

"First soldier down" she whispered mostly to herself, echoing the words she'd spoken to Angel just hours ago, "I didn't know how we were going to get along without you" she admitted a little louder.

"Seems to me you weren't all that thrilled with my parting gift to you" he said with a smirk, "I mean really, princess, snogging poor old Wes to get rid of the visions I kindly bestowed upon ya"

"You couldn't have just written me into your will" she rolled her eyes, obviously joking before turning serious again, "You gave me a purpose, a reason to carry on fighting the good fight...I never got a chance to thank you, for everything"

"No thanks necessary, sweetheart" he told her, mirroring her earlier actions and putting a hand to her face as tears crept down her cheeks once again, "Although, if you're dead set on it, I can think of a few interesting ways to show your gratitude"

She swatted his hand away then, trying to look annoyed but failing badly. She was too pleased to see him to be truly angry, besides he was just fooling around like he always had done.

Cordy's mind went back to those first few months of Angel Investigations. Her and Angel and Doyle, the dynamic trio as it were. They were the beginning, now the vampire with a soul they'd helped the helpless along side of was forced to face a type of end alone. Sure he had the gang but...

"Hold on a sec" she said suddenly having a thought, "How did you know about me kissing Wes after you'd...gone?" she asked.

"View from up here's pretty good" he shrugged, "S'not like I had much else to do 'cept for the sight seein' and nobody I'd rather watch than you" he told her, looking down through the cloud like substance at their feet. It seemed like he was seeing something she wasn't but Cordy didn't know how. Off her look he felt the need to explain and came to stand up close beside her, daring to put his arm around her back.

"Just look down there" he pointed, "and concentrate. You want to bad enough and you'll see the old dark avenger himself"

Cordelia did as he said and the whiteness dissolved to reveal a perfect view of Angel's Wolfram and Hart office, the man himself leaning back on his desk with tears in his eyes and the phone still clutched in his hand.

"I didn't want to leave him" she whispered, not really sure whether she'd said it aloud or just thought it.

"It's not easy" Doyle sighed, "to leave behind the one you love"

His eyes were fixed downward but Cordy turned her head to look at him instead.

"I could have loved you" she told him solemnly, "Demon parts and all, I think...I know I could've, I kind of did anyway"

Doyle didn't have an answer to that as he brought his eyes up to meet hers. For one who was normally so talkative it was disturbing to be completely lost for words.

"There are advantages to being dead" he said eventually, "You can't threaten to kill me for this" he told her softly as he leaned in to put his lips to hers.

Cordelia's eyes closed of their own accord as she got lost in an embrace she'd only enjoyed once before, and yet felt strangely familiar, like coming home. When they broke apart a moment later she smiled.

"That was..." she didn't have a word to describe it, she'd vaguely hoped she might have by the time she'd got to that point in her short sentence, "Gotta say, I don't mind that so much when there's no head-splitting pain visions as a free gift with purchase" she told him eventually. Doyle laughed at that.

"Did what I had to back then, princess" he reminded her, "Now, well, there's not a thing that we have to do. From here on out you make your choice, whatever your heart desires"

"Did you get everything you wanted when you got here?" she asked him as he looked into her eyes.

"Not exactly" he admitted, "Had to leave what I most wanted behind" he said, his meaning not lost on Cordelia and she almost blushed, something fairly uncharacteristic for the ex High School bitch queen.

"You and me, huh?" she smiled once again, "I could deal with that" she said, seeming a little nonchalant though inside her heart was screaming with joy at the reunion.

"It was always you and me, princess" Doyle told her, taking her hand in his as they walked back through the shining gates to the beyond, "Just took a while for you to realise is all"

The End

A/N2 : Reviews would be very much of the good!


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